CHILD IN THE HOUSE is a rather staid and boring melodrama that offers an acting role for 'Mandy', a child actress popular in Britain in the 1950s but nowadays long forgotten. She plays a kid split between different sets of parents; the ones she's living with due to her mother's hospitalisation are divided between love and hate, while she rekindles a relationship with her absent father, a likeable dodgy geezer played by Stanley Baker. Drama is evoked by conflict between the different sets of adults and Baker's need to keep himself hidden from plain sight. This is a talky, slow-paced kind of affair, really only worth watching to enjoy the talents of various grouped performances including Percy Herbert, Dora Bryan, Eric Portman and Victor Maddern.
Review of Child in the House
